Earl Strickland
Earl Strickland continued his dominance of pool on the East Coast with an undefeated run through the field of 31 other players to win the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's stop at Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY over the November 10th - 11th weekend.
Strickland was only one of the marquee players in this one, as Mike Dechaine, Jeremy Sossei, Jayson Shaw and Shaun Wilkie were also in the field and would not have been considered surprises to snap this event off.
Wilkie found himself on the left side of the board early Saturday after a second round loss to Nelson Oliveira. Dechaine was sent away from the winners side by Sossei 9-8 in the final eight undefeated players, and Sossei quickly followed 9-7 at the hand of Jayson Shaw.
After Strickland sent Oliveira to the left side, it was down to Earl and Jayson for the hot-seat. Jayson has been taking on just about every world beater on the East Coast lately, but this match went to Earl 9-5 for the hot-seat.
On the one loss side, Wilkie had a nice run of four match wins before being eliminated by Dechaine. Sossei's stay on the left side was a short one as he was quickly eliminated by Mike Badsteubner.
Dechaine's run on the left side was no easy chore as he defeated Mike Zuglan, Wilkie, Oliveira, Badsteubner (a nice 4th place finish) and Shaw to earn his place against Strickland in the finals.
The final match between Strickland and Dechaine would be hard to pick a favorite for, but Earl took control of the first (and only) set to win 9-6 for first place.
Strickland's win puts him at number 8 on the Joss Tour points list. Dechaine's runner-up finish moves him from 5th to 4th on the list. Ron Casanzio remains on top of the list, with Sossei one spot behind in second.
The second chance event on Sunday drew eight players and saw Chris Lazarovitch tested by Brent Boemmels in a two set final.
Lazarovitch took the hot-seat with a 3-2 win over Boemmels, but Boemmels came back and beat Lazarovitch 3-1 in the first set of the finals. Lazarovitch bounced back and took the second set of the finals 3-0 for the tournament win.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Snookers Billiards this weekend for the 24th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship. This will be a $5000 added event with no second chance tournament.
Players are also reminded that the Turning Stone Classic is coming up in January and the field is already 75% full. Interested players are urged to contact Mike Zuglan at 518-356-7163 to reserve their spot now.
